The United States Public Health Service (PHS) was founded first by President John Adams as a loose network of hospitals to support the health of American seamen. It is the uniformed service of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. Order: 2nd President Vice President: Thomas Jefferson Term of office: March 4, 1797 – March 3, 1801 Preceded by: George Washington Succeeded by: Thomas Jefferson Date of birth: October 30, 1735 Place of birth: Braintree, Massachusetts Date of death: July 4, 1826 Place of death: Quincy, Massachusetts First Lady: Abigail Adams... The United States Department of Health and Human Services, often abbreviated HHS, is a Cabinet department of the United States government with the goal of protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. ...

Members of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps wear uniforms of the United States Navy with special corps insignia and hold rank similar to that of Naval officers (Commander, Admiral, etc) The Public Health Service Commissioned Corps is the uniformed division of the United States Public Health Service (PHS) and one of the seven Uniformed Services of the United States. ... The United States Navy (USN) is the branch of the United States armed forces responsible for naval operations. ...

The headquarters of the Public Health Service is at 5600 Parkview Drive, Bethesda, Maryland. Panoramic view of downtown Bethesda Bethesda is an urbanized, but unincorporated area in Montgomery County, Maryland, near Washington, DC. It takes its name from a church once located there, the Bethesda Presbyterian Church (built 1820), which in turn was named from a passage in the Christian New Testament. ...

The origins of the Public Health Service may be traced to the passage of an act in 1798 that provided for the care and relief of sick and injured merchant seamen. The earliest marine hospitals created to care for the seamen were located along the East Coast, with Boston being the site of the first such facility; later they were also established along inland waterways, the Great Lakes, and the Gulf and Pacific Coasts. 1798 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Alternative meanings: Boston (disambiguation) The 18th-century Old State House in Boston is surrounded by tall buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries. ... The Great Lakes from space The Great Lakes are a group of five large lakes on or near the United States-Canadian border. ...

A reorganization in 1870 converted the loose network of locally controlled hospitals into a centrally controlled Marine Hospital Service, with its headquarters in Washington, D.C. The position of Supervising Surgeon (later Surgeon General) was created to administer the Service, and John Maynard Woodworth was appointed as the first incumbent in 1871. He moved quickly to reform the system and adopted a military model for his medical staff, instituting examinations for applicants and putting his physicians in uniforms. Woodworth created a cadre of mobile, career service physicians who could be assigned as needed to the various marine hospitals. The uniformed services component of the Marine Hospital Service was formalized as the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps by legislation enacted in 1889. At first open only to physicians, over the course of the twentieth century, the Corps expanded to include dentists, sanitary engineers, pharmacists, nurses, sanitarians, scientists, and other health professionals. 1870 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Aerial photo (looking NW) of the Washington Monument and the White House in Washington, DC. Washington, D.C., officially the District of Columbia (also known as D.C.; Washington; the Nations Capital; the District; and, historically, the Federal City) is the capital city and administrative district of the United... Surgeon General can have several different meanings. ... 1871 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... The Public Health Service Commissioned Corps is the uniformed division of the United States Public Health Service (PHS) and one of the seven Uniformed Services of the United States. ... 1889 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... A physician is a person who practices medicine. ... X-rays can reveal if a person has cavities Dentistry is the practical application of knowledge of dental science (the science of placement, arrangement, function of teeth) to human beings. ... Pharmacists are health professionals who practice pharmacy. ... A nurse is a health care professional, who is engaged in the practice of nursing. ... The delivery of modern health care depends on an expanding group of highly trained professionals coming together as an interdisciplinary team. ...

The scope of activities of the Marine Hospital Service also began to expand well beyond the care of merchant seamen in the closing decades of the nineteenth century, beginning with the control of infectious disease. Responsibility for quarantine was originally a function of the states rather than the Federal Government, but the National Quarantine Act of 1878 conferred quarantine authority on the Marine Hospital Service. Over the course of the next half a century, the Marine Hospital Service increasingly took over quarantine functions from state authorities. Quarantine, a medical term (from Italian: quaranta giorni, forty days) is the act of keeping people or animals separated for a period of time before, for instance, allowing them to enter another country. ... 1878 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

As immigration increased dramatically in the late nineteenth century, the Federal Government also took over the processing of immigrants from the states, beginning in 1891. The Marine Hospital Service was assigned the responsibility for the medical inspection of arriving immigrants at sites such as Ellis Island in New York. Commissioned officers played a major role in fulfilling the Service's commitment to prevent disease from entering the country. 1891 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Ellis Island immigrants as depicted in a USPS stamp Ellis Island, in the joint jurisdiction of New Jersey and New York, is located in New York Harbor at the mouth of the Hudson River. ... State nickname: Empire State Other U.S. States Capital Albany Largest city New York Governor George Pataki Official languages None Area 141,205 km² (27th)  - Land 122,409 km²  - Water 18,795 km² (13. ...

Because of the broadening responsibilities of the Service, its name was changed in 1902 to the Public Health and Marine Hospital Service, and again in 1912 to just the Public Health Service. The Service continued to expand its public health activities as the nation entered the twentieth century, with the Commissioned Corps leading the way. As the century progressed, PHS commissioned officers served their country by controlling the spread of contagious diseases such as smallpox and yellow fever, conducting important biomedical research, regulating the food and drug supply, providing health care to underserved groups, supplying medical assistance in the aftermath of disasters, and in numerous other ways. 1902 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1912 is a leap year starting on Monday. ...

External links

• U.S. Public Health Service web site (http://www.usphs.gov/)

This article is based on the public domain text History of the Commissioned Corps, PHS (http://www.usphs.gov/html/history.html) The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...